The Next Phase of Life
by thefunnyone19
Summary: In the 5th installment of the Ice Age Franchise, Ice Age Collision Course, Diego and Shira both discussed about having a kid of their own. But there was no explanation to how it came about. This one-shot should be the missing piece of the puzzle.


**Hello Ice Age Readers! This is my first Ice Age story that I have ever done. So on the 22 of July, I watched Ice Age: Collision Course; my first Ice Age movie in a movie theater. I really enjoyed it and now I can't wait for the movie to be on DVD. I am writing this one-shot of Diego/Shira because not only am I a fan but in the 5** **th** **installment of the Ice Age franchise, I was feeling kinda disappointed with the lack of time these two had together; as a couple on their own future plan at hand. I wish that the franchise would give an insight as to what made them think about why they decided to talk about their future plan; how it came about. Nonetheless, as I said in the beginning, I really enjoyed the movie.**

After the Continental Drift, it seems as if life in the herd was moving into the next phase. Peaches, the daughter of Manny and Ellie was to be engaged to be married with another mammoth; this one being idiotically funny and just down to Earth, compared to Manny. His name was Julian. When Julian asked Manny and Ellie for their daughter's hand in marriage, Ellie was fine with the marriage as long as Julian promised Ellie that he would love and treat her right. Manny on the other hand was not so thrilled about the marriage. Not only was his only child growing up but she was getting married to a mammoth that didn't meet his expectations. Manny's opinion didn't matter because as soon as they got married, they were leaving the herd to live happily on their own. Ellie and Manny were not happy about this but they had to just accept it sooner rather than later.

Sid was happy that he finally found true love or so he thought. She was a sloth named Francine. After their one and only date which lasted 14 minutes (according to her but to Sid it felt like 20), Sid was finally ready to take a big step into his life, a proposal and a bright future. He had everything ready; the ring, the marriage Hyrax, the music, their kids, and their burial plots. That all came crashing down within a few seconds. Francine rejected his proposal and their future together because he was not only clingy but she was just not interested in him. Sid was so heartbroken and thought that he would never be loved as much as he loved the female sloths he met over the years.

Granny, Crash, and Eddie were not moving into the next phase of their lives. Since Granny was already old, she nothing new going on her life except waiting for her time on Earth to end. Crash and Eddie were doing brother stuff; playing around with one another, making jokes about one another and to the herd, and just being true to themselves; to their identity which would them nowhere in life.

Diego and Shira were taking the next step into their relationship; talking about having a kid. After Diego welcomed Shira into the herd, they both got married and were just happy. Diego never thought that he would find someone he could spend the rest his life with before the Continental Drift happened. He had turned soft over the years but he ultimately turned soft when he met Shira. He would never admit but deep down he knew that he had, thanks to her. Shira never thought she would find someone like Diego. After running away from her own pack for whatever reason and going to Captain Gutt and his crew, she never thought of finding someone special. But after Diego convinced her that if she went along with him, her life will be filled with happiness, comfort, and togetherness, she felt loved thanks to him. They had spent most of their time just being with one another; from cuddling, to nuzzling, to placing licks on one another, and just saying _'I Love You'_.

One day, early in the morning, Diego suddenly woke up because of the strange feeling he was having. Well he was having this strange feeling for the past couple of months but decided to ignore it because he thought maybe it was the feeling of still being in love with his wife. But the more time passed by, the more it bothered him. This feeling was more than feeling; it was a feeling of an urge.

He looked around making sure no one had woken from his sudden outburst. Thankfully no one did. He turned to head to the side and looked at Shira who was still sleeping by his side. He smiled at her lovely with a certain sparkle in his eyes. _She looks so peaceful and beautiful too. Yeah, I'm turning soft._ He thought. He gave her a lick on the cheek and got up from his spot and decided to take a walk to get rid of the feeling.

 _Why is this feeling just bothering me? Why can't it go away? Why now or for the past few months?_ He said to himself while continuing the path where he would ultimately find the answer to the feeling he was having. The more he walked the more the sound of laughter filled the air. Before he know it, he was in front of a playground full of kids playing early in the morning. Some kids in the playground were playing tag, others were taking turns on the slide, and the rest were looking at the sun that was beginning to rise.

While looking at the kids, the feeling Diego had gotten greater. His fur had gotten goosebumps. He was too weak to stand on all four of his feet and smile made its way on his face. _That's it! Kids! The strange feeling that I am having is kids. But why?_ He was snapped out of his thoughts when a voice he knew all too well interrupted him.

"So this is where you have been." Shira said as she was walking towards Diego.

"How long have I been gone for?" Diego asked her. She sat side by side with him and laughed.

"For about an hour. Why are you here anyways?" Shira questioned him while waiting for an answer from Diego. There had to be a reason why he was here. She could sense something was bothering him but she really could not put her paw it. Diego turned to her looking at her face to face.

"Um well…for the past couple of months I have had this strange feeling. At first I thought it was a feeling of still being in love which I still am but the feeling has been bothering me. I was walking just to see if I can clear the feeling but somehow when I was thinking about the feeling and ended up here. As soon as I got here, the feeling that I had grew greater. Then I put the two missing puzzle pieces together before you found me. The strange feeling I got was an urge Shira; an urge to start a family with you." Diego explained to her.

It took Shira a few seconds to fully understand what he was saying and then it clicked. He wanted to have a kid with her. Never in a million years had she ever thought about starting a family with someone she loved. She tore her eyes away from Diego and looked at the ground. After not hearing Shira say anything about what he told her, Diego became concerned. _Why is she not responding to my explanation? Did I do something wrong? Is she ready to become a mother? Is it too early to talk about having a kid? Will she shut down after this conversation?_

Shira then looked up at Diego with a smile on her face. She too had something to reveal to Diego; something that she had been hiding from him.

"Well you are not alone with the feeling but I didn't have the urge." Shira began. "It started the day after we got married and it is still with me to this day. The feeling came into my dream I was having while sleeping. Instead of continuing the dream about trying to chase down Crash and Eddie after teasing me for becoming soft when you are around me, I started seeing pieces of our future; our future with a saber cub. You were nuzzling the cub for the first time after I gave birth, it saying its first word "dada", us teaching the cub how to walk, and you teaching it its first hunting lesson." Shira then looked at the children playing, her voice started to sound unsure, and the smile turned into a frown. "But I never came to you about the feeling because I didn't know if you were ready to talk about it. I did not want to pressure you about it."

Diego focused his attention to the kids and chuckled. Shira raised an eyebrow up after hearing him chuckle. "What is so funny?" Shira asked.

"C'mon Shira you know if you have anything on your mind, you can always to talk to me about anything right?" Diego responded while looking at her. Shira nodded her head making the shell earrings jingle. "And you should have come to me about this. If I had that feeling later down the line, I would know that you were on broad with the whole having a famiy. There is no need to keep it pent up inside."

"The same would be applied to you too." Shira said smirking. Diego was confused at first but later understood what she meant. If he had that feeling for the past few months, he could have come to her about it and they would have talked it out. _I guess he was too soft to talk about it._ Shira thought and laughed to herself.

"Yeah, I guess you are right." Diego replied playfully rolling his eyes. "So since we both have the same feeling about having a kid, will we be good parents, even with our bad pasts?"

Shira had to think for a second."The past is the past. We cannot change what happened in the past. You almost wanting to bring the baby human to your pack to get revenge on the humans while me being part of a pirate crew doing bad things and being labeled as a traitor by Squint but all we can do is plan for the future; looking ahead and never look back." Shira said while looking at him.

Diego looked at his wife with admiration. _She is one of a kind._

"You know I love you right?" Diego questioned while closing the gap between them and pressing his forehead against hers while smiling. Shira smiled and looked at her husband lovely.

"I know you do and I love you too." After the romantic moment of nuzzling, they decided to turn their attention back to the kids. "Do you think they noticed us yet?" Shira asked.

"I dunno." Diego replied. Suddenly they heard a scream.

"It's the tigers! They are looking at us! They want to eat us! Everybody RUN!" One of kids said as all the kids began to panic. They all started looking for hiding places so they were no longer in sight.

"I guess you got your answer Shira. And by the looks of it, I don't think they are pleased to see us. I think they are afraid of us." Diego said.

"Now that's problem we need to fix." Shira replied. "But we have to figure out a way for them to like us. Even if that means something has to come threaten our lives and we as a herd have to figure out a plan to stop that something, then maybe we would be looked as heroes instead of predators and then we would be liked."

"Keep dreaming Shira, keep dreaming. We'll figure it out somehow." Diego said.

 **It has been completed and I am very happy with the result of it. Took me a couple hours to complete but it was all worth it for my first. I hope it kind of fills the void. But at least some good news…there might be a 6** **th** **installment. I did some investigating and the co-director said around June that there are some ideas being thrown around the next movie. I hope this becomes a reality. Thanks for reading! Signing out!**


End file.
